Jan Beans closed marginally higher on Friday up ¾ cent, after spending most of the days session much higher. Initially the market opened much higher and traded to $1025 only to give back almost all of the gains to end the session at $10.13 ¼ losing a nickel in the last 10 minutes of trade. Traders say option expiration for the Nov options had a lot to do with it. Interesting to note going into the session there were still over 13,000 open Nov $10.00 calls and reports show exercise of 3500 of these calls with a 995 ½ settlement in the Nov futures. Volume on Friday was heavy with CBOT reporting 151,754 Soybean, 48,001 Oil and 41,567 Meal traded. Funds bought an estimated 2,500 Beans, 2,500 Oil and 1,000 Meal on Friday.

Today's early opening calls are higher. Overnight the $US hit all time lows against a basket of major currencies again, helping boost commodity prices. Crude oil is into new contract highs once again offering support to surging veg oil prices. US will move into a period of drier weather for the next 10 days. Harvest activity will escalate to the point where space and transportation systems will be taxed. Ocean freight rates continue to surge. Russia plans to slash an import tariff on Soyoil, sunoil and rapeoil to 5% from 15% for six months as part of its campaign aimed at fighting inflation. The Dalian Commodity Exchange launched a new palm oil futures contract on Monday expanding its commodity futures markets to offer more hedging tools for edible oils. Reports show that China has purchased substantial amounts of soybean oil out of South America this week and reports that they are fairly active buying US and South American soybeans this week. Overnight Malaysian Palm Oil futures surged to new all time highs once again. Chinese Soybeans ended higher.

Early Opening Calls: Soybean 11 to 13c higher; soymeal $2 higher; soyoil 60 to 70 pts higher

Top News

-- 13% of Brazil Soybean crop planted up 4 percentage points from prior week, but behind the 22% pace seen a year ago & the long term average pace of 16%, acc. to Safras Mercado

-- Analysts expect soybean harvest pace at 85% complete in Monday's USDA crop progress report

-- Commitment of Traders report with Options as of October 23 shows Funds: Soybeans Long 134,471 up 2,707

-- Commitment of Traders report with Options as of October 23 shows Funds: Soymeal Long 65,432 up 2,771

-- Commitment of Traders report with Options as of October 23 shows Funds: Soyoil Long 54,487 off 2,828

-- Dalian Soybean May futures +68 yuan/mt to 4,441 yuan. Active May soymeal futures 47 yuan/mt higher finishing at 3,344 yuan/mt, soyoil futures +154 yuan/mt higher on good volume with 114,270 contracts trading.

-- Malaysian palm oil extended its record climb overnight, gaining +4.3% to $875/ton on demand information, outside markets

-- eCBOT Soybean Vol. 102,710; Pit Vol. 39,692; Open Interest Change: -20,176

-- Weather: 6-10 Day Forecast: Normal to Below Temps. Normal to Below Precip.

-- Outside markets: Energy: crude 75c higher made new contract lifetime high at $93.20/bbl, petrol products higher; Gold Dec +$4.20, Dec contract high $798.30 in territory not seen since Jan 1979 & Silver 20c higher; US $ down vs Euro, slightly higher vs Yen

Cash Markets

--CIF Soybeans steady up 3. Oct. +30 to +38, Nov. +39 to +44, Dec. +43 to +50, Jan. +50 to +55, Feb. +30 to +40, Mar. +35 to +45, Apr. +33 to +40.

Nathan T. Smith III
Linn Group
nsmith@linngroup.com
toll free: (877) 787-6278
local: (312) 896-2090
fax: (312) 896-2050

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